FDP announced its Q3 earnings before the market open today. Some key points in the release:
- Net sales increased 13% to $563.7m from $498.5m (referred as expansion in the repack produce segment)
- Gross profit declined 4.3% to $65.0m due to adverse weather conditions affecting the Company's banana and tomato businesses
- Net income gained 5.5% to $34.3m (apparent FDP got a tax break for the quarter, but press release contains no details)
Additional personal take-aways:
- The result beats consensus estimate of $0.57 by three cents
- The business seems to be in good track albeit the impact from the adverse weather.
- Though cash flow information is not revealed, the company's balance sheet is greatly solidified. Compared to end of 2002, cash increased $72m and debt reduced $39m, representing an approximate free cash flow of $111m for the three quarters. The P/FCF in this issue is in the neighborhood of 10. (I hope that management can start a program to buyback stocks.)
- It is disturbing that # of outstanding shares increased around 1% YOY